The cohesion and the spirit-de-corps in the Indian Armed Forces (Army, Navy and the Air Force) is fostered by various customs and traditions, which are reflected in the daily lives of their officers and men. They are not always legally binding but they are nonetheless followed willingly without coercion. There are traditions handed down from the past – Valour, Honour and Never to Surrender – that are intrinsic and resonate the lives of servicemen and image of their regiments and formations. On the other hand there are cus­toms and traditions that regulate the lives of soldiers, sailors and airmen on a daily basis; military courtesies, dress and mess customs, regimental traditions, ceremonial drills and parades and the like. The various facets of customs and traditions of the armed forces were originally compiled by late Maj Gen Chand N. Das. The present volume has been inspired by the original and contains edited updated and enlarged facets that have been arranged in seven parts containing 33 chapters. Each chapter deals with different aspects of customs and traditions, viz., flags, colours and emblem, military uniform and dress customs, commemorative days, state and military funerals, battle honours, war memorials, medals and ribbons and so on. About the Author Maj Gen Chand N. Das was commissioned in 1933 and served with Lancashire Fusiliers in the British Army. He saw active service in the Second Word War on many fronts and was awarded OBE. Later he joined the Rajputana Rifles and commanded the 5th Indian Division. He breathed his last in Delhi in May 2006. Brig S.P. Sinha was commissioned in 9th Gorkha Rifles on 12 June 1960. He had his early education at RIMC, Dehra­dun and is an alumnus of NDA, Pune, and IMA, Dehradun. He is a graduate of DSSC, Wellington (Nilgiris). He took part in Indo-China War (1962), Indo-Pak War (1965), and Bangladesh War (1971) on the Western front. He was Deputy GOC of a Division in Operation Pawan (Sri Lanka). He retired from service in 1994.